Magyar Vagon withdraws its takeover bid for Talgo after the government veto

Aug. 29 () –

The Hungarian consortium Ganz-Mavag (Magyar Vagon) met this afternoon to withdraw the Public Takeover Offer (OPA) of shares that it launched to buy Talgo, following the veto received from the Government to the operation.

According to sources close to the consortium, the communication to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) announcing the withdrawal of the offer was supposed to have been made this afternoon, but it will probably not be communicated to the market until tomorrow.

In any case, the decision has already been made and the offer will be withdrawn, according to the same sources.

This decision will allow the CNMV to reject the transaction, since the regulator needed a communication from the offeror (Magyar Vagon) to proceed with the completion of the transaction, which it admitted for processing a few months ago.

In any case, Magyar Vagon plans to appeal the government’s decision. In the meantime, with the path cleared, Czech Skoda will now be able to continue negotiating with Talgo to merge their businesses, provided that Talgo’s management is open to it.

The company rejected Skoda’s offer twice, as it was more interested in the Magyar Vagon offer, since Skoda did not intend to control the capital, while the main shareholders of Talgo want to sell their shares.

However, once the operation was vetoed by the Government, Skoda is the only company interested in Talgo and the only possibility for Talgo shareholders to leave the company or, at least, to sell part of their capital and be able to expand their industrial capacity.